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Topic: 1969 AM FM radio options (Read 7614 times)

I have what I thought was a 69 AM FM radio? I have been doing some searches on radios for sale and have found too many variations claiming the "correct" factory style for 69. Also could someone educate me on the difference between the mono, yellow light, and blue light. I was told that all 69 radios had a slanted cooling fin on the rear of the unit? this is what I have.

That's probably a 1970 or later AM/FM mono radio, it will fit into a 69 dash fine but there are a couple of cosmetic and functional differences. 1) the radio dial numbers are white while the 69 ones were green, and the radio light is wired to be on only when the dash lights are one, while the 69s dial was lit whenever the radio was on, on was off when the rado was off. All 69 AM/FM radios did have the slanted fins on the output amplifiers, theoretically to clear the ductwork behind the radio, but the square finned ones will fit in there as well. 69 radios also had the eltrical and speaker connections on the right (drivers) side or the radio, not on the back side. All 69 AM/FM units (except the yellow light) have a round plug in the drivers side rear corner of the radio used to connect the unamplified radio signal to the output amps.

AM/FM mono radios are single channel output units that were attached only to the speaker in the dash like the AM unit. You could order RPO U80 Auxiliary speaker and get a second speaker on the passenger side rear deck with a fader knob under the radio tuning knob. It was still a mono setup and the fader just split the signal between two speakers.

The Bluelight AM/FM stereo radio, so named because it has a blue stereo lamp in the upper right corner of the dial, had a separate multiplex unit mounted up behind the glove box that was connected to the head unit in the dash with a 6 or 7 conductor wire and a circular plug with pins on it that looked like the bottom of an old vaccum tube. The head unit sent unamplified mono signals to the multiplex unit which converted it into a sort of stereo signal and then sent it back to the output amplifiers in the head unit and from there out to the 4 speakers. The bluelight setup was used from the beginning of the 69 model year to about August of 69 at which time the yellow light stereo unit came into probuction.

The yellow light stereo unit does not have the separate multiplex unit and has a yellow stereo lamp in the dial. It was probably made for the 70 model year and used in the later camaros when a blue light unit was not available.

I think the date is 7449 but I dont have the unit in hand yet. How would this decode? I bought it from a Camaros.net classified ad. The seller claimed it came from a 69 Z28 he owned years ago and he thought it was the yellow light. My 69 Z11 has a single rear speaker in the top well and I thought a yellow light would be what I needed? Anyway, the seller said he could not be sure the unit was original to the 69 Z28. I took a shot....and I guess it will work

The label is missing but you can tell it was located on the left, driverside, of the unit and was the large format.

Single speaker in the rear well would indicate either an AM or AM/FM mono radio with the U80 auxilliary speaker option. No Z11 had a Yellow light stereo as they didn't start showing up until Late August or early September of 69, a full 4 to 4 1/2 months after the last Z11 was built.